Monday, March 30, 2015

Insurgent is a new science-fiction/action movie
and film adaption of the same named book; the second installment in author
Veronica Roth’s Divergent trilogy. The movie features an impressive
young cast including: Shailene Woodley, Theo James and Miles Teller as well as
the veteran Kate Winslet.

Insurgent is a sequel to last year’s Divergent
and will be followed by two more movies: Allegiant: Part 1 and Part
2, coming out in 2016 and 2017, respectively. Obviously, this is following
the same model as the seemingly endless string of teen book to film
productions, including the extremely popular Harry Potter, Twilight and Hunger
Games franchises. I never read any of the Divergent books, but I did
enjoy the first film nonetheless. However, I thought it was a bit of a down
step from the extremely comparable Hunger Games movies. Heading into Insurgent,
I had optimistic hopes that it would be one of those rare sequels that tops
its predecessor in every way. Unfortunately, it did not quite reach my very
high expectations, but it was at least more exciting than the original movie.

The dystopian future of the Divergent series
focuses on the post-apocalyptic city of Chicago, in which society is divided
into five different factions based on their talents and values. These factions
are: Dauntless, Amity, Erudite, Abnegation, Candor and the Factionless group
for those who don’t fit in one.

Insurgent picks up right after the first
movie, with our protagonists Tris (Shailene Woodley) and Four (Theo James) on
the run, following a violent takeover from the Erudites and their leader
Jeanine (Kate Winslet). This sequel is full of unexpected plot twists, so I
will keep the rest of my summary brief and spoiler free. All I will say is that
the tension between the factions is building and a rebellion is seemingly
imminent, as all the different groups search for allies and answers.

Although I didn't find it to be quite as good as its
predecessor, I thought that Insurgent was a pretty decent movie. There
was a little more action than the original for sure, but the plot had a bit too
much going on and was somewhat hard to follow. However, the action scenes were
quite exciting and Shailene Woodley did a very good job in her lead role.
Overall, Insurgent is a solid action movie that fans of the books will
most likely enjoy.

Monday, March 16, 2015

Chappie is a new science fiction film from
director Neill Blomkamp (District 9, Elysium). The movie stars Sharlto
Copley as the voice of the title character, alongside Dev Patel, Hugh Jackman
and Sigourney Weaver in supporting roles. Although I never had a chance to
watch 2013’s Elysium, I did see 2009’s District 9,the
first of Bloomkamp’s three major projects as a director. With Peter Jackson (The
Lord of the Rings Trilogy) working as a producer, I really loved District
9 and in my opinion, it stands tall as one of the absolute best science
fiction films of the 21st century. Having said that, I honestly wasn’t
expecting Chappie to be anywhere close to Blomkamp’s debut in terms of
quality, however, in the end, it turned out to be a surprisingly entertaining
movie driven by an extremely interesting and well executed title character.

Chappie takes place in the seemingly near future,
primarily in the city of Johannesburg, South Africa (hometown of director Neil
Blomkamp). In a desperate attempt to reduce extremely high crime rates, the
government purchases a police force of fighting robots from a weapon
manufacturing company called Tetravaal, led by Michelle Bradley (Sigourney
Weaver) as well as Australian engineer, Vincent Moore (Hugh Jackman). Early in
the movie, one of the police droids called “Chappie” (Sharlto Copley) is stolen
by a company worker named Deon Wilson (Dev Patel). Wilson intends to install
new programming that he designed himself, turning Chappie into the first robot
that has his very own thoughts and feelings.

As with District 9, the film Chappie had
extremely impressive visual effects making for a mostly entertaining movie.
However, the story took a little too long to get rolling and the acting was
nothing special, from the human characters anyways. I especially would have
liked to have seen some more screen time from science fiction legend Sigourney
Weaver. Now that my few issues are out of the way, I must address what I really
loved about this movie - Chappie himself. I have to say that they completely
nailed the robotic lead character, as Chappie looked absolutely incredible and
Sharlto Copley did an exceptional, amusing job with the voice work. Chappie
himself was without question the best part and driving point of the movie for
me.Itisn't exactly the next great science fiction film, but the
title character alone made Chappie an enjoyable movie experience.